Harry Harrison (sad news)

Harry Harrison, one of the great SF fans and writers, died last night at home after a lingering illness. Harry was active in founding SF fandom itself as a teenager in the 1930s, and attended the first World SF conevntion in 1939. After serving in the military, he returned to the US in 1946 and became an artist and illustrator in the comics industry, and later, in the 1960s, wrote scripts for Buck Rogers in Europe. He edited SF magazines, began to write fiction in the early 1950s, and after the late 1950s lived most of his life with his family abroad, in Mexico, Denmark, England and Ireland. He founded the organization World SF, and held the first conference in 1976 in Dublin. He was a citizen of the world.

With his friend Brian Aldiss, he edited many anthologies, including an influential Years Best SF series from the late 1960s to the mid 1970s, a series with a distinctly literary cast. He wrote famous SF novels and was a popular figure in the field, always contentious and passionate and fast-talking and often quite funny. He was my friend for decades and I will miss him.

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